The present invention relates to a new and improved method and apparatus for measuring out a strand guide arrangement or roller apron of a continuous casting installation, wherein there is measured the mutual spacing of the tracks or paths of travel for the continuously cast strand defined by the strand guide arrangement.
To operate continuous casting installations the exact adjustment of the strand guide arrangement-paths of travel, governed by for instance oppositely situated rows of rollers, is important, since otherwise there can arise damage to the cast strand. Therefore, at certain time intervals there is measured the spacing of oppositely situated rolls and, when the need arises, such spacing is corrected.
Apart from manually measuring out the strand guide arrangement by means of a micrometer gauge there are known to the art methods and apparatuses which measure out a strand guide arrangement of a continuous casting installation by means of a measuring head which, for instance, is attached to a dummy bar, and thus, is drawn through the strand guide arrangement or roller apron. The measuring head is connected by means of a drag cable with an indicator or display instrument which displays the corresponding distances or spacing. What is disadvantageous with this system and technique is the presence of the cable which can lead to difficulties in operation. For instance, on the one hand it is easy for fracture or rupture locations to be formed at the cable, the length of which is appreciable in the case of continuous casting installations having large metallurgical lengths, and, on the other hand, due to the required sliding contacts at the cable rolls which serve for transmission of the electrical signals, there are frequently caused disturbances. In order to eliminate these difficulties the obtained data can be transmitted in a wireless fashion by radio from the strand guide arrangement to a receiver. However, with such data transmission difficulties arise, due to the screening effect of the steel mass of the continuous casting installation causing falsification of the signals. Also, this solution is complicated.